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Dessert

Black Cake

A dense fruit cake made with currants, raisins, citron, almonds, and spices, baked slowly at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Black Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolks and flour alternately, a little at a time, with the beaten egg whites.

  3. Stir in the brandy and baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water.

  4. Sift in the remaining flour and mix in the spices.

Prepare the fruit and almonds

  1. Slice the citron and stone the raisins, or use seedless raisins.

  2. Clean and dry the currants, then dredge them in flour.

  3. Blanch the almonds in hot water, remove the skins, and chop or pound them.

  4. Dredge the chopped almonds in flour and add to the fruit mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until well done.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add structure, richness and moisture, and the whites help lighten the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit and crumb together as the cake sets.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel-like flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that helps the cake rise.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour that suit a rich, long-baked fruit cake.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites with the flour. Beaten egg whites trap air that lightens the batter. Mixing gently and alternating with the flour keeps that air from being knocked out, which helps the cake rise and stay tender.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, almond, egg, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, almond, egg, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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